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In the USA, the Tivo is already a household name and has become so popular that it risks becoming not only a generic term but also a verb. It seems that to "tivo" something is the 21st century equivalent of recording it.

However, while digital recorders have a raft of features, such as time-shifting, one-key ad-skipping, instant random access to your recordings and a huge capacity, they really only come into their own when used in conjunction with an electronic programme guide (EPG) service.

While VCR users struggle to program their recording devices with cumbersome G-Codes, start/stop times and days of the week -- those with a digital recorder supported by a matching EPG can just point and click.

Some are even smart enough to learn from a user's previous viewing habits and suggest material they think might be of interest -- cool eh?

Of course SkyTV have been promising, and even advertising that they'll have a digital recorder available "real soon now" for quite some time.

In true SkyTV fashion, they've been wildly optimistic regarding timeframes and will probably underwhelm the market when they finally get around to fulfilling the promise. Let's not forget the fiasco that surrounded something as simple as introducing new software to their set-top boxes a few years back.

Meanwhile, there are already a small number of people who have directly imported the famous Tivo machine and converted them to work with our PAL system rather than the US NTSC one -- and some of these have even set up simple EPG that works by sucking listings from broadcasters' own websites.

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Other enterprising individuals have built their own digital recorders based on conventional PC components.

Before the digital recorders can realise their true potential in NZ however, someone is going to have to bring out a full and accurate EPG that can be used to provide simple point-and-click selection of programs or genres to be recorded.

There's a problem though -- copyright.

Most broadcasters assert copyright over their advance programme listings and charge a pretty penny for their use by publications such as TV Guide, The Listener, etc.

This means that the chances of a good, *legal*, non-commercial EPG being set up are pretty remote -- odds are that CanWest and the like will come down like a tonne of bricks on anyone who tries that.

Across the ditch in Oz, Peter Vogel has decided to set up just such an EPG though.

His ICE system has a raft of cool features -- such as allowing your digital recorder to automatically skip the adds during recording.

So I wonder how Peter is getting around the copyright issue over there.

Perhaps he's licensed the listings he's using -- but I'd have to wonder why any free-to-air broadcaster would license their listings to someone who's using them to build a system that screens out the advertising that is their very lifeblood.

I also expect that none of NZ"s broadcasters would support any EPG that offered to automatically skip the recording of ads so don't expect to see such a service running here.

Now regular readers may remember that I have been planning to set up an EPG for some time -- right now I'm still mulling the copyright issue.

Although the broadcasters may claim that they can assert copyright over those listings, I'm not so sure. My position is that the core of the listings is a group of facts which are composed of: programme title, start time, end time, and possibly genre.

Surely a broadcasters intention to transmit a specific sequence of programmes at specific times is not a "work" but simply a bunch of facts -- and we know that facts are not copyrightable, only the representation of those facts.

If you spider a broadcaster's website and build an EPG from that data then yes, you're breaching copyright. However, if you build your own guide based on a projection of historical information and the facts contained in programme promos broadcast by the TV channels concerned then this should be considered a completely new work, even though it's based on the same set of facts.

I'm sure that many high-powered corporate lawyers dwelling in the halls of our broadcasters towers would love to debate this in a court of law -- and who knows, they might just get the chance.

In the meantime, we may end up with an "official" EPG but don't expect it to include the *really* cool features we all want and if the company behind it is SkyTV, don't expect it to be cheap, accurate, timely or anything like ergonomic to use.

Related link: Aardvark's PVR project.

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